Disclaimer: I do not own characters, blah, blah, blah, or zombies.

Chapter Four: ...Is The One Thing I Need Before I Die!

"My name is Tifa. Tifa Lockhart." The new brunette said as they approached the fire escape of the current rooftop the group was on. "Aerith Gainesborough, nice to meet you." "I'm Zack, and as far as we can tell, this is Marlene on my shoulders here." He replied with a grin to which Tifa responded with, "Marlene? ...are you from Sector 7 by any chance?" her voice slightly cracking as she spoke, Tifa waited anxiously for the girl's reply, much to the confusion of the two others in the group. "I used to live there with papa…" the girl replied weakly through Zack's hair and Tifa asked in a very cracked voice if her last name was Wallace, to which the girl nodded "yes". Flabbergasted, Tifa spoke again, her excitement taking over, "You're alive! I saw your dad just the other day! I know where he is! We thought you were dead! Oh, he'll be so happy!" "Really?" the girl said through her shock and Zack asked her second question before she could, "Where is her dad? We have to reunite them!" "He told me to meet him at the old Shin-Ra headquarters, their security system wasn't all electric, y'know? I was supposed to gather supplies and then we were going to wait out the nightmare there. I just know we'll find him there!" And off the four-some went, with a spring in their step at finally hearing some good news for the first time since all this started.

"… hey, name's Barett. What's yer name, red?"

"Well, heck if I'm telling' you, gimpy! Ya just tried ta kill me, what's with the gettin' acquainted all the sudden?"

"Nothin'! Jes thought you'd like ta know my name 's' all, ya jack-"

"Aw, shaddap, would'ja? Jeez, I can't even hear myself think! Now which floor was that on…?"

"Listen you Shin-Ra scum! I ain't 'bout to be taken' none o' your sh-"

"AHA! I remembered! Floor 59, here I come!"

"You even listenin'!"

But no, Reno wasn't and he proceeded up the stairwell, "Gimpy" as he dubbed him following along behind. Floor 59 was a very long way from the 1st floor…

Well, walking had turned into a bad idea, a very bad idea. it was hot, humid, and the fly population must have been epic that year too, because the only living things out here other then him and the dog appeared t be flies, loads of them! The dog got nervous overtime they ran into a particularly dense population of the flies, but then he got angry too, so it didn't seem unnatural to him. He finally emerged from the forest only to discover barren wasteland, not a car or person in sight. Well, his was getting interesting… not. Head hung low he trudged on, ignoring his stomach which was trying to get across the fact that it was lunchtime, and also ignoring the dog which had taken to growling every so often.

"…Marlene? Daddy jes wanted to see yo' face one mo' time, an' I guess I'll be there soon sweetheart…"

"What? You crazy! Keep walkin', ain't much further!"

"That's… what you said… two flights ago… huff…I can't go on..."

"Gawd, just die then, jeez. Why am I even pretendin' to care?"

"Fine… but jes… don't let dem things… eat me…"

"Whatever! I'll let 'em eat you, then I'll just shoot you in the head… Deserve it anyway, 'cause your such a crap shot… Do these things ever end!"

"Heh…heh, heh…heh…"

"Quit it! You're givin' me th' creeps!"

"Heh, yo jes like me now… sick of these d- stairs…"

"… I ain't never gonna be like you, for one, I can shoot a gun and hit a target, an' two? I'm just better."

"Why you cocky, stuck-up, jack-!"

"What? Truth hurt?"

"Rargh! When I get my hands on you…!"

"Ha! That'll never happen, 'cause you gotta catch me fist! LOSER! GIMPY! JACK-"

Now had Reno predicted what would be waiting for him on the other side of the door to the 59th floor, he might've been a little quieter, maybe. But as it was then, when he shouted the last part of his taunt at Barett, he could be heard clear to the 67th floor. When he slammed open the doors to the 59th floor, the only thing he could think to do, before run, was say, "This's been happenin' to me a lot recently…" And he took off in the path of least resistance up to the stairs which led to the 60th floor, Barett following close behind as the massive hoards of Remnants chased after them.

The silence of their journey was only broken by the grunts and groans of the undead surrounding their relatively safe rooftop path, only a few times they'd had to stop and fend off remnants. It was during those stops that Zack and Aerith finally figured out why Tifa was wearing long, thick gloves that covered her arms past her elbows, almost all the way to her shoulders and on top of them smaller black leather gloves over her hands, she fought close combat. If she hadn't had the arm coverings, she'd more than likely be one of them by now, because they'd have bitten her and it not be counter-acted by her makeshift leather armor. This observation and the few varied encounters they had, the trip toward Shin-Ra headquarters was very uneventful, that is, until they reached their destination...

"I thought you said this place was safe! You gimpy in the head too?" Reno shouted as they passed the 63rd floor, there really wasn't any point in keeping quiet, the whole freaking building knew they were there by now. "Crap! Detour!" Reno said as he dodged left out to the 64th floor, leaving Barett to navigate around the Remnant that had charged at him and leaving the stairwell entirely. "Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, SHIIIIIII-" Reno said as he dove to avoid a vicious bite meant for him. Then he saw it! His luck was comin' back baby!

It was starting to get dark out and he was rather tired of walking too, but just where on earth was he? He still couldn't see anything out in the vastness that was the open plain he was on... wait... was that a farm? It was! Yes! Now at least he wouldn't have to spend his night outside in the dark with no idea where he was, because he could at least borrow their phone and call his squad or his brother, whichever answered sooner. Arriving at the farm, which looked very deserted, he started to second guess whether he'd be able to use a phone, it really didn't look like there would be a working one in this run-down place. Had the whole world become run-down or something? Out of the corner of his eye, he caught movement and shouting a "hello" proceeded over toward the man who had also started heading toward him after he'd announced his presence. The dog, however, began backing away, growling in a very guttural, low way.

Boo-yah! Flamethrower, baby! Well, okay, so it was a can of aerosol and the lighter he'd stolen from that gas station, but it worked the same, apparently zombies don't deal well with fire, which was good to know. Actually, Reno didn't really think anyone dealt well with their flesh being burned away from their skin and muscles, rotten or not. Pretty soon, he'd cleared a path to a doorway on the 64th floor, a door which lead to almost exactly what he was looking for, so maybe a trip to the 49th floor SOLDIER's armory wouldn't hurt either, but a trip to the weapons testing and development room wasn't too bad itself. He kept the flames going as his new partner bolted shut the door. "What the he- was that in the stairwell! I almost got eaten, fool!" "You're here by the grace of me, so shut it!" Reno retorted, saddened by his realization the aerosol can was used up, and tossing it aside, he proceeded to look through the weapons storage. "Ooh, look at this! … I have no clue what it is." he said as he proceeded over to a weapon of some sort, but the only people who would have known what it was were Remnants now. "Hey! Look-y here! What's this? 'Electro-prod rod?' Sounds nifty!" "You done shoppin', princess? 'Cause we needs to be getting' outta here, if ya are." The other said, ruining Reno's perfectly good mood with his sour one, didn't everyone love weapons that doubled as tortured devices as much as he did? Apparently not. So gathering what weapons seemed useful into a messenger bag that one of the scientists must have left in their mad rush to leave the building, all the explosives, and a paper clip, just to be safe, he proceeded to smash open the window and climb out onto the ledge, the tiny ledge, that laid outside the window sill. "What? You aren't coming?" he asked the wide-eyed man left inside in a most nonchalant way, as if he were asking the man a basic question, such as what does two plus two equal?

Hmm, that guy has a pretty bad limp was the only thing that ran through his mind as he started to approach the shambling undead farmer who used to own the place. He would have been the thing's next meal, except the kid who'd been hiding from said farmer zombie jumped from his hiding spot, and grabbing a piece of a metal pipe, bashed in the head of said undead monster. Once he'd knocked the thing down, he proceeded to pound in it's skull until Cloud rushed over and stopped him, asking, "What are you doing? Why did you kill that man?" To which the boy responded, "He was already dead! What nonsense are you talkin' about?" "What? That's insane, he was walking toward me, can dead people do that?" "Yeah!" "What! No, they can't." "Well, not really dead people, but he was a Remnant, so yeah!" "...What is a Remnant?" "...What?" After a brief description and the boy poking the thing's head to reveal it only had half a jaw, which proved well enough that the guy had been dead before he'd bashed in his brains, the boy introduced himself to the very confused Cloud, "I'm Denzel. What's your name? Where have you been mister, under a rock? 'Cause I thought everybody knew about the Remnants, least everybody I've seen so far did." "...Cloud. I... I woke up yesterday in an abandoned church..." "Woke up? Were you in a coma or something?" "...maybe? Where are all the other people you know, isn't anyone with you?" "...they're... gone. I'm here alone, I just came to see if this place had any canned food, the only thing that's worth anything anymore, but then this farmer zombie saw me, so I was hiding from him until you distracted him." "...I see. Um, do you want to come with me? I'm looking for my brother." "...Really? Can I? ...Hey, is your dog friendly?" At this, Cloud finally realized that the dog was with him again and replied, "I don't know, he's not mine. He was there when I woke up and followed me here. C'mon, let's get inside, we can spend the night inside instead of out here, okay?" And the two proceeded with caution into the house where they spent the night secured in the bathroom, the kid sleeping in the tub with the dog and Cloud slumped against the wall, but he didn't sleep a wink that night, nor was he likely to sleep much in the future... this was a lot to take in, how had all this happened? Was this just a dream? Would he wake up soon? If this had really all happened, just like the kid said, was his brother even still alive?

Crawling along the ledge outside the window was very scary, well at least it was for Barett, apparently Reno had no issues risking his life on a high ledge. He also had no issues with sliding down a very unsafe looking pipe, down to the level below, floor 63 was it? "Why you doin' all o' dis?" "Dude, gotta get to the 49th floor, which is down!" Reno replied back with a touch of sarcasm in his tone. "Well, why's I gotta do it?" "Don't. Stay up there and rot for all I care, I'm sure the Remmies will let you into their club, after they eat you." and as he finished saying that, Reno broke into the building through the window. Sliding in deftly, he noted that, indeed, he had chosen a good room, there weren't any zombies inside, and the door was shut, bigger bonus… well, sorta… because the door was shut, he couldn't see what was waiting outside, but also they couldn't get in, so it was win-lose? The crashing sound he heard behind him he assumed to be Barett and he was right, apparently landing was not his thing. "Quiet! You wanna draw 'em all here? Jeez…" Reno whispered violently at the klutz behind him and that was the last thing either of them said to each other until they managed to get to the 49th floor, how was a miracle for neither of them at the time had any idea how they'd gotten through undetected. Loading up on guns, swords, just about anything he could carry and still maintain a good degree of mobility with, he grabbed. Reno was a pack-rat by nature it seemed… a looter too, because even Barett who hated the Shin-Ra so much he was previously a member of a anti-Shin-Ra terrorist organization couldn't force himself to take as much stuff as Reno did from the place. "Well, let's go before we get mobbed again." Reno said casually, like he just didn't like the idea of a crowd rather than the idea of possibly getting eaten, guy had a death-wish Barett was fairly certain. Reno sauntered on over to the elevator and as he started to pry it open using a sword he'd just acquired, Barett thought it would be a good idea to add his two cents worth, "Why you's openin' the elevator, fool? We ain't got no electricity!" Actually, we do 'cause Shin-Ra Inc. has tons of back-up energy generators, otherwise we wouldn't have made it through the front door, but that's beside the point, just how many zombies does it take to pick up a sword or some such flat object and pry open an elevator shaft?" "...Dunno? One? Two? What kinda question is that anyway?" "...really? One or two? JUST HOW STUPID ARE YOU? Them things is dead, they ain't thinkin' 'bout pryin' open no elevator, moron! The only thing they're thinkin' is 'nom-nom-nom, peoples's tasty', or somethin' like that. You are so... dumb." Reno was thoroughly disgusted with his dimwitted partner, and he let him know it in true Reno fashion. Finally winning against the elevator door, Reno jumped right into the dark abyss that was the elevator shaft, not even thinking about the consequences that would have resulted if the electricity was still coursing through the metal wiring he grabbed onto... luckily it wasn't. Barett followed cautiously behind him, although with a prosthetic arm, he followed rather slowly.

When Zack, Aerith, Tifa, and Marlene neared the old Shin-Ra headquarters, they were shocked by what they saw. Standing in the middle of a what used to be a massive undead horde were two men, just as the last sounds of a firearm dissappated into the air, the thinner of the two turned and shot the other man, right in the head, execution style. The shooter, Zack and Aerith realized, was Reno, his eyes cold and vacant as he stared at the still falling corpse of the man he'd just shot. Before they could ask him anything though, Zack heard a screech come from behind his head, "DADDY!"

Crazy Author's Monologue: Yes, I did just end the chapter there. Ha! {Again, I remind you, I'm evil.} So, yes, What happened in Shin-Ra head quarters? ...You guessed it, you'll just have to play into my evil plan and keep reading to ever figure that one out. I plan to revisit Shin-Ra headquarters in later chapters, so yup, it's the suspense part of this story. Um, oh yeah, I can do lots of stuff still with Shin-Ra headquarters, 'cause it's been a whole day right, since they got there, but since I wasn't specific on time following Barett and Reno... ha, I win. So yeah, R, R, and R peeps! I'll be waiting!